- January 6, 2026
Matanzas High School senior Yeva Dermenzhy immigrated with her family to the United States from the Ukraine when she was 6 years old.
When they arrived, Yeva, her parents and her three siblings spoke Russian. None of them could speak English.
“Everyone was waiting for me to first learn the language so then I could help my family,” she said.
Living in Minnesota at the time, she first went to a Russian school where she wasn’t submerged in the English language.
“My early elementary, I would say, kind of set me up for failure, initially,” she said. “I had to learn English without really having any sort of support.”
That experience motivated Dermenzhy to become an advocate for others. As a sophomore at Matanzas she founded the Eastern European Club. The club organized a community donation drive to send about 330 pounds of clothes and toys to orphans in the Ukraine, she said.
As president of the club, she also advocates for her fellow club members. She talks to teachers to seek help for students who might be struggling in class, Matanzas Principal Mike Rinaldi said.
Dermenzhy is Matanzas High’s Standing O selection for 2026.
She's the type of student that advocates for the people that can't advocate for themselves. And academically, she excels in every class.
— MIKE RINALDI, Matanzas principal
“She's a phenomenal young lady,” Rinaldi said. “She's always helping people. She takes the initiative to start programs, areas that she can provide support for other students. She's the type of student that advocates for the people that can't advocate for themselves. And academically, she excels in every class.”
Dermenzhy is in the Cambridge AICE program and was one of three seniors this year to receive her AICE diploma with distinction. She is also dual-enrolled, taking University of Florida courses online.
A QuestBridge scholarship finalist, Dermenzhy has been accepted to Brown University where she plans to major in mechanical engineering and possibly also astrophysics. Her goal is to attend law school and become a patent law attorney.
“That’s my ideal career,” she said. “In patent law you get to see new designs, and it requires an engineering background. But who knows? Maybe I’ll fall in love with mechanical engineering. Brown has open curriculum, so I can choose my classes.”
She has interned at Goan Law in Palm Coast since she was 14 years old.
Attorney Timothy Goan said Dermenzhy has received permission to sit in on some consultations with clients. She also does some legal research, he said.
“She dives right in it,” Goan said. “She’s been able to do it from Day 1 — get in there and do some reasonably effective research for me, just to help me get the lay of land on a particular issue.”
She’s also learned how to file court documents with the Flagler County Clerk’s office, Legal Assistant Diana Moscoso said, and Dermenzhy recently filled in for Moscoso when she was on vacation.
“She’s very inquisitive,” Moscoso said. “She asks questions that I wouldn’t have thought of. If Mr. Goan gives her a research project, she’ll do it and tell me, ‘Oh this was so interesting.’ It makes me happy that she is learning something that probably somebody will be doing when they’re out of law school, and she's doing it here, while she's still in high school.”
That law internship helped Dermenzhy effect a change in a school district Information Technology program. Her patronymic — a middle name derived from a father’s first name used in some Eastern European cultures — had been removed, changing her school email address without merging her old account to allow her emails to be forwarded.
“I went to the IT office and only then did they merge it,” she said. “They did a merging email account for me because I advocated.”
But then Dermenzhy and Eastern European Club sponsor Fran Lagocki were noticing that they couldn’t email another member of the club. He had had the same problem for over a year, Dermenzhy said.
“He couldn’t advocate for himself. He couldn’t speak English,” she said. “Everyone can be subject to this. Let’s say their parents divorce and they get a new name. It’s not only for immigrants, but many immigrants can’t advocate for themselves.”
Thanks to Dermenzhy’s initiative, the district now merges accounts when student emails are changed.
“Yeva saw that there was an issue with one of the IT programs, and she went through the proper channels and got it fixed,” Rinaldi said. “When she recognizes that there is something that she can be involved in and fix, she jumps right in.”
Besides law and engineering, Dermenzhy also has an interest in marketing and finance. One of the Eastern European Club’s projects is selling Slavic snacks during both lunch periods two days a week. The club gets its inventory from Happy Chef Bistro and Deli. She was also involved with the student business organization DECA for three years. She and her partner qualified for DECA’s International Career and Development Conference in the Business Law and Ethics competition. Dermenzhy is also a teller at Matanzas High’s VyStar Credit Union branch and at a VyStar Palm Coast branch.
“She’s so well-rounded,” Rinaldi said. “She's dynamic. She is a natural leader amongst her peers, and the adults all respect her as that leader. She’s definitely set her goals, and she is working as hard as she can to get there. Her acceptance to Brown is just proof in the pudding. She's a shining star at Matanzas High School. She truly is.”
